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Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy '' Il Pigmalione'', which may never have been performed during his lifetime. An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to his move to Naples and his residency there un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Les Martyrs
''Les martyrs'' (, ''The Martyrs'') is a four-act grand opera by Gaetano Donizetti set to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe. The libretto was based on one written by Salvadore Cammarano for an original Italian version known as ''Poliuto'', which was not performed until after the composer's death. Pierre Corneille's play ''Polyeucte'' written in 1641–42, the story of which reflected the life of the early Christian martyr Saint Polyeuctus, is the original source for both versions. When ''Poliuto'' was banned by the King of Naples just before it was due to be performed in 1838,Ashbrook and Hibberd 2001, p. 224 Donizetti became angry at this decision and, with a commission from the Paris Opéra due, he paid the penalty to the San Carlo for not producing an original work as a substitute, and left Naples for Paris arriving on 21 October. As his first of two commissions for the Opéra, he proposed to revise ''Poliuto'' and, between 1839 and 1840, a French text was prepared by the no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Poliuto
''Poliuto'' is a three-act ''tragedia lirica'' (or tragic opera) by Gaetano Donizetti from the Italian language, Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, which was based on Pierre Corneille's play ''Polyeucte'' written in 1641–42. It reflected the life of the early Christian martyr Saint Polyeuctus. Regarded by one author as Donizetti's "most personal opera" with the music being "some of the finest Donizetti was to compose",Allitt 1991, pp. 177—187 ''Poliuto'' was written in 1838 for performances planned at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples later that year. However, close to the time for rehearsals to begin, Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, King Ferdinand II refused to allow the martyrdom of a Christian saint to be seen on stage and forbade the production.Ashbrook and Hibberd 2001, p. 224 Angry at the decision and with a commission for the Paris Opéra due from the composer, Donizetti paid the penalty to the San Carlo for not producing an original work as a substitute, and left ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Lucia Di Lammermoor
''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoor''. Donizetti wrote ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' in 1835, when he was reaching the peak of his reputation as an opera composer. Gioachino Rossini had recently retired and Vincenzo Bellini had died shortly before the premiere of ''Lucia'' leaving Donizetti as "the sole reigning genius of Italian opera".Mackerras, p. 29 Not only were conditions ripe for Donizetti's success as a composer, but there was also a widespread interest in the history and culture of Scotland. The perceived romance of its violent wars and feuds, as well as its folklore and mythology, intrigued 19th century readers and audiences. Walter Scott dramatized these elements in his novel ''The Bride of Lammermoor'', which inspired several musical works including ''Lucia''.Mackerras, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Don Pasquale
''Don Pasquale'' () is a Gaetano Donizetti opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts, with an Italian libretto completed largely by Giovanni Ruffini as well as the composer. It was based on a libretto by Angelo Anelli for Stefano Pavesi's opera ''Ser Marcantonio'' written in 1810 but, on the published libretto, the author appears as "M.A." Donizetti so dominated the preparation of the libretto that Ruffini refused to allow his name to be put on the score. This resulted in confusion over the identity of the librettist for more than half a century, but as Herbert Weinstock establishes, it was largely Ruffini's work and, in withholding his name from it as librettist, "Donizetti or [his assistant] Michele Accursi may have thought that, lacking Ruffini's name, the authorship might as well be assigned to Accursi's initials as to a pseudonym". The opera was first performed on 3 January 1843 by the Théâtre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour in Paris with great success and it is general ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Roberto Devereux
''Roberto Devereux'' (in full , ; "Robert Devereux, or the Earl of Essex") is an 1837 (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The opera is loosely based on the life of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, an influential member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto based on François Ancelot's French tragedy (Paris, 1832), with some of the text taken from Felice Romani's libretto for Saverio Mercadante's opera ''Il conte d'Essex'' (Milan, 1833), also based on Ancelot's play. Cammarano's libretto also incorporated elements from the 1787 French play (1787) by Jacques Lescène des Maisons. Devereux was the subject of at least two earlier French plays, both titled : one in 1638 by Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède, and one in 1678 by Thomas Corneille. It is one of a number of operas by Donizetti which deal with the Tudor period of English history and which include ''Anna Bolena'' (about Anne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
L'elisir D'amore
''L'elisir d'amore'' (; ''The Elixir of Love'') is a (comic melodrama, opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's (1831). The opera premiered on 12 May 1832 at the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan. Background Written in haste in a six-week period, ''L'elisir d'amore'' was the most often performed opera in Italy between 1838 and 1848 and has remained continually in the international opera repertory. Today it is one of the most frequently performed of all Donizetti's operas: it appears as number 13 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide in the five seasons between 2008 and 2013. There are a large number of recordings. It contains the popular tenor aria " Una furtiva lagrima", a '' romanza'' that has a considerable performance history in the concert hall. Donizetti insisted on a number of changes from the original libretto by Scribe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Anna Bolena
''Anna Bolena'' is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's ''Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena'' and Alessandro Pepoli's ''Anna Bolena'', both recounting the life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII. It is one of four operas by Donizetti dealing with the Tudor period in English history—in composition order, '' Il castello di Kenilworth'' (1829), ''Anna Bolena'' (1830), '' Maria Stuarda'' (named for Mary, Queen of Scots, it appeared in different forms in 1834 and 1835), and '' Roberto Devereux'' (1837, named for a putative lover of Queen Elizabeth I of England). The leading female characters of the latter three operas are often referred to as "the Three Donizetti Queens." ''Anna Bolena'' premiered on 26 December 1830 at the Teatro Carcano in Milan, to "overwhelming success." Weinstock notes that only after this success did Donizetti's teacher, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Caterina Cornaro (opera)
''Caterina Cornaro ossia La Regina di Cipro'' (''Caterina Cornaro or The Queen of Cyprus'') is a ''tragedia lirica'', or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. wrote the Italian libretto after Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges' libretto for Halévy's '' La reine de Chypre'' (1841). It is based on the life of Caterina Cornaro (1454 - 1510), Queen of Cyprus from 1474 to 1489. It premiered at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 12 January 1844. Composition history Following the success of ''Linda di Chamounix'', ''Caterina Cornaro'' was commissioned by Bartolomeo Merelli, impresario of the Kaertnerthortheater in Vienna, and was partly composed in 1842, just before ''Don Pasquale'', and completed during the following summer. The Viennese realised that the same subject had been set to music the preceding year by Franz Lachner and the debut was cancelled. Donizetti dedicated himself instead to '' Maria di Rohan'', presented at the Theater am Kärntnertor in June 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Zoraida Di Granata
''Zoraida di Granata'' (also ''Zoraide di Granata'' or ''Zoraïda di Granata'') is a two-act ''melodramma eroico'' (''opera seria'' or 'heroic' opera) by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto, partly prepared by Bartolomeo Merelli (whose delays Donizetti criticized), drew on Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian's 1791 play ''Gonzalve de Cordoue ou Grenade Reconquise'' and on Luigi Romanelli's libretto for Giuseppe Nicolini's ''Abenamet e Zoraide''. When Donizetti arrived in Rome, carrying a letter of introduction from his teacher and mentor Johann Simon Mayr to poet and librettist Jacopo Ferretti, he secured his help in revising Merelli's text. Although it was Donizetti's first theatrical success "and the opera in which he began to adopt 'Rossinian' techniques",Ashbrook and Hibberd 2001, p. 226 the original 1822 version of this violent love story was never given a complete performance because Amerigo Sbigoli, the tenor originally cast in the role of Abenamet, died shortly before th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Il Pigmalione
''Il Pigmalione'' (''Pygmalion'') is a ''scena lirica'' (lyric scene or opera) in one act by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist is unknown, but it is known that the libretto was based on one by Antonio Simeone Sografi for 's ''Pimmalione'' (1790), in turn based on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's '' Pygmalion'' and ultimately based on Book X of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. Sografi's libretto was also used for an opera by Bonifacio Asioli (1796). This was Donizetti's first opera, written in six days between 25 September and 1 October 1816 when the composer was 19Osborne 1994, p. 139 and a student at the Bologna Academy, a position acquired for him with the help of his teacher in Bergamo, Johann Simon MayrAllitt 1991, p. 9 and where his "gift for spontaneous composition flowered". It has been noted that although the comedy is "musically slender, the score, nevertheless, reveals the fledgling composer's flair for melody". It was not performed until 13 October 1960. Performance history The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; ; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was an Italian opera composer famed for his long, graceful melodies and evocative musical settings. A central figure of the era, he was admired not only by the public, but also by many composers who were influenced by his work. His songs balanced florid Ornament (music), embellishment with a deceptively simple approach to lyric setting. Born to a musical family in Sicily, he distinguished himself early and earned a scholarship to study under several noted musicians at Music conservatories of Naples#Conservatorio di San Sebastiano, Naples' Real Collegio di Musica. There he absorbed elements of the Neapolitan School's style and was inspired by performances of Donizetti's and Rossini's operas, among others, in more modern idioms. He wrote his first opera, ''Adelson e Salvini'' (1825), for the conservatory, and his next, ''Bianca e Fernando'' (1826), on a Teatro di San Carlo-affiliated commiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Salvadore Cammarano
Salvadore Cammarano (19 March 1801 – 17 July 1852) was an Italian librettist and playwright perhaps best known for writing the text of ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' (1835) for Gaetano Donizetti. For Donizetti he also contributed the libretti for ''L'assedio di Calais'' (1836), '' Belisario'' (1836), '' Pia de' Tolomei'' (1837), '' Roberto Devereux'' (1837), '' Maria de Rudenz'' (1838), '' Poliuto'' (1838), and '' Maria di Rohan'' (1843), while for Giuseppe Persiani he was the author of '' Ines de Castro''. For Verdi he wrote '' Alzira'' (1845), '' La battaglia di Legnano'' (1849) and ''Luisa Miller'' (1849), but after he died in July 1852, Verdi worked with Leone Emanuele Bardare to complete the libretto for '' Il trovatore'' (1853).Budden, Vol. 2, p.65 Cammarano also started work on libretto for a proposed adaptation of William Shakespeare's play ''King Lear'', named '' Re Lear'', but he died before completing it; a detailed scenario survives. His father, Giuseppe, was a pain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
